New Delhi: Priyanka Chopra, a global icon, was talk of the town after she gave an interview to iconic talk show host Oprah Winfrey on Super Soul. It was a virtual interview. Priyanka joined in the interview from London and Oprah Winfrey was in Hawaii.
Priyanka talked about her family, her belief, growing up in the US, being bullied in school, and then her journey after being named Miss World and how Nick Jonas supported her in everything that she does, the same way her father used to.
Here are big quotes from her tell-all interview:
1. All about her family and spirituality
In the interview, she talked about her family life. The actor said, “Also my family really believed in having a higher power and having a sense of faith. This is again something my dad used to tell me, he was like basic religion is all a way to get to supreme power and every religion has a different face to the same direction where we’re going - whatever your face is, whatever your version of that is, it’s just a means to an end. And so, I am a Hindu and I pray, I have a temple in my home; I do it as often as I can. But at the same time, to me, I am truly more spiritual. I feel – I’m a believer of the fact that a higher power does exist and I like to have faith in that.”
She also added, “I think around the death of my dad, at that time, [my faith] was tested… I flew my dad to Singapore, New York, Europe, and India, everywhere just to do whatever I could to prolong his life. It's such a helpless feeling. I was very angry, my relationship with God changed a little bit… but then at the same time, I feel like God helped me to find salvation and come out of it too.”
2. Journey of being Miss World
“I was thrown into the deep, and so badly. I didn't come from a pageant family. I didn't come from desiring that. I never thought I could be part of it. At 17, when you're thrown into this crazy world of pageants internationally and movies, I was just trying to keep my head above water at that point,” the actor said.
3. Priyanka Chopra's thoughts on husband Nick Jonas
“I may have judged the book by the cover, I didn’t honestly take it seriously when Nick was texting me, you know, I was 35, I was like I want to get married, I want to have kids, and he is, you know in his 20s, and I don’t know if that’s something he’d want to do, like I did that to myself for a while, till I actually went out with him and nothing surprised me more than him. He is such a self-assured man, so sensible, so excited about my achievements, my dreams, and such a true partnership that he offers me in everything that we do together,” she said.
4. On bullying in school and self-worth
“I think high school is hard anywhere, right? And to becoming of age, to understand your body as a woman and at the same time to be devalued for something I can’t change or you know I wasn’t even aware of the fact that this was something I should feel embarrassed about. But I guess when I was made to feel like, did my clothes smell funny when I walked by a hallway or did people smell curry or you know little things like that at 16 are so detrimental to a sense of self-worth, your sense of self,” she said
5. Priyanka Chopra on her memoir unfinished
She even talked about her book, she said, “I had committed to writing the book in 2018 and between all those flights and little time that I would get in all those hotel rooms that I lived, I could just never write. But I had this time because of Covid and that helped me really delve deep. Honestly, I also feel like I, as a woman, being in a little bit more of a secure place, where I felt like I could leave behind the insecurities of my 20s and like not worry about that used to scare me before as much. I have a little bit of more confidence in myself. What I bring to the table professionally, personally… so that really helped me address my life. And I always wanted to write a book and I thought the easiest way to do it is to write about my life. If you want to dig deep, which I really wanted to, it can be uncomfortable. There were many times I wouldn’t finish writing about something because I just didn’t know how I really felt about that.”
Priyanka even talked about quitting a film after being mistreated. Priyanka spoke about the time she was asked to do a dance performance in a film, which made her uncomfortable. But she could not call out the director for mistreating her because she was still a newcomer in the film industry. While speaking about her upbringing, the actor said that she was always taught to be opinionated, “I was told to have an opinion in a room that disagreed with me. I was always encouraged to have a voice.”
However, she regretted not standing up to the director who made her uncomfortable. “I was so scared. I was new in the entertainment business and girls are always told that 'you don't want to get a reputation of being hard to work with'. So I worked within the system,” said Priyanka. She later quit the film.
Priyanka’s message for India
“I just miss India. I haven't been back since Holi last year and, you know, India's my home and I just want to come back visit and smell it and live it and meet my friends and I also want to, you know, do a Hindi movie. I haven't done that for a while. So, I just miss home a lot. I just want to be able to get on a flight and land in Mumbai.”
Check out the full interview:-
